Sociology 182a
Spring 2009
Paper 2: Institutional Study
Due Wednesday, 8 April
This paper is intended to build on your historical synthesis, to demonstrate how your assigned institution contributed to the Jim Crow racial order through its impact on the “repressive capacity” of the white power structure. Your discussion should not exceed ten double-spaced pages, and should include the following components:
1) a broad contextualized introduction to your assigned institution. By “contextualized,” we mean that the opening discussion should introduce your institution through two related “lenses.” The first is an historical lens, focusing on how the institution fit within the broader organization of white supremacy in the Jim Crow South (we expect that this section will incorporate at least some revised text from your historical synthesis paper). The second lens is theoretical, introducing the idea that variation in the institution’s organization across counties shaped the “repressive capacity” of that institution. As a rough guide to help you decide how to allocate your available space, we recommend that you spend approximately 3 pages on this component.
2) a detailed background discussion of the key features and trends associated with your institution. In this section, you should clarify how the institution operated for both African-American and white Mississippians, and describe any pivotal shifts or trends – either over time or across counties – that you feel are important to convey the role played by the institution in Civil Rights-era Mississippi (approximately 4-5 pages).
3) a conceptualization of at least four variables that proxy the capacity of institutional elites to maintain racial social control (i.e. the degree to which whites associated with the institution in question were able to exploit particular vulnerabilities within the black population, and/or the ways in which autonomy within the black community insulated them from such repression). This discussion should justify the value of each variable, showing how it proxies particular dimensions of repressive capacity in some way. Note that you do not need to include or code specific data associated with each measure here, but it should be clear from your discussion how each variable will be operationalized in your third paper (2-3 pages).
4) a one-page Appendix (which does not count toward the overall page limit) that organizes your variables into two lists: those for which you have already identified necessary data sources (please provide a citation to each relevant source), and those that still require additional work to develop or find associated data.
You should be sure to post your paper to your Latte portfolio by 5pm on April 8th.